Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[Silophant]

Very cool! I'm hoping it's a precursor to eventually allowing fare purchases through the app like other cities do. It's so nice when traveling to have a single app that just works pretty much wherever you go.

[angrysuburbanite]

Some ridership updates to share!
https://www.metrotransit.org/performance
January
Lowest ridership month since the beginning of 2023 with a daily ridership of 124,947 - same month in 2024 was 135,210.
- Blue Line slips further to 13,810, below Jan 2024's 16,117, now within a thousand riders of the D Line, which saw 12,372 rides
- Green Line falls from post-covid highs in September of 32,959 down to 22,957.
- Orange Line rebounds slightly to 1,789, though down from 1,998 (also September)
- Regular bus plummets to 65,743 - both December and January saw slightly lower numbers this year than last year. The high from 2024 was 80,284.
- Saturday ridership sees a large drop to 81,241 from 94,906 the previous month, further down than the high of 130,233 in August.
- Sunday takes the biggest hit with 65,910 rides from 97,169 in December. Same time last year was 75,568.
2024 Year End
https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... nfo-1.aspx
- 2024 saw sizable increases in ridership during the spring and summer, but growth slowed by the end of the year and fell slightly behind 2024 in December.
- Overall ridership for the Metro Transit system was 51,874,415, up 6% from 48,736,824.
- Maple Grove Transit saw an 11% increase from 216,123 to 240,608
- MVTA saw a 3% decrease from 1,255,515 to 1,223,343
- Plymouth Metrolink saw a 21% increase from 180,874 to 218,436
- Southwest Transit saw a 23% increase from 446,391 to 550,938
- U of MN saw a 9% increase from 2,442,872 to 2,663,750
- Midday bus ridership saw the most growth. Peak hour ridership in the fourth-quarter is given as the reason for the ridership decline.

Despite a less than optimal beginning to the year, the new BRT services and amenity improvements on local bus services will probably increase the ridership momentum (especially since the B and E lines hit some historically very choice-rider heavy areas)

[kdo5581]

Hey why has the Green Line been such a disaster through the U campus lately. Slow running, missed signal priority windows. Very strange. Seems to start at West Bank station - every train entering from downtown has been crawling as it approaches the station.

[DanPatchToget]

Hey why has the Green Line been such a disaster through the U campus lately. Slow running, missed signal priority windows. Very strange. Seems to start at West Bank station - every train entering from downtown has been crawling as it approaches the station.

Speed restrictions due to track breaks from the freeze thaw conditions this winter.

[kdo5581]

Hey why has the Green Line been such a disaster through the U campus lately. Slow running, missed signal priority windows. Very strange. Seems to start at West Bank station - every train entering from downtown has been crawling as it approaches the station.

Speed restrictions due to track breaks from the freeze thaw conditions this winter.

I'm not seeing anything on Metro Transit's website about a plan to address this. Does anyone know if there's any (even loose) plan for fixing this? Was surprised to see a closure for the Blue Line South of Fort Snelling (especially since they had a big closure of this somewhat recently?) but nothing for Green Line planned. Would be nice if there was at least a formal acknowledgement of causes for slow service somewhere (unless I'm just missing it)

[COLSLAW5]

This year with the temperature swings has caused the most rail breaks in one season apparently. The plan is to fix the west half up to Raymond excluding DT MPLS over the last weekend in May and the East half into STP in Mid July.

Rail shut downs are coordinated half a year or more in advance normally to stack repairs and projects and miss any major events. So its hard but they try to minimize disruptions

[UrbanMPLS]

Couldn’t they do some of these repairs during the overnight hours? I thought this was one of the benefits to only running 18 hours a day.

[HuskyGrad]

Couldn’t they do some of these repairs during the overnight hours? I thought this was one of the benefits to only running 18 hours a day.

Usually to repair rail brakes you’ll need more than a few hours for the elastomeric grout to set up.

[UrbanMPLS]

Couldn’t they do some of these repairs during the overnight hours? I thought this was one of the benefits to only running 18 hours a day.

Usually to repair rail brakes you’ll need more than a few hours for the elastomeric grout to set up.

Makes sense. Appreciate the explanation.

[kdo5581]

This year with the temperature swings has caused the most rail breaks in one season apparently. The plan is to fix the west half up to Raymond excluding DT MPLS over the last weekend in May and the East half into STP in Mid July.

Rail shut downs are coordinated half a year or more in advance normally to stack repairs and projects and miss any major events. So its hard but they try to minimize disruptions

That's helpful - thanks for the explanation.

Are you just hearing about these plans informally? I know the agency is probably a little reluctant to post anything specific in case things change, but I feel like with the amount of slow zones, it would be beneficial to at least acknowledge the problem in a more official capacity.

[daveybabymsp]

Anyone know how close Metro Transit is to bringing back 10 minute frequency for light rail? I was hoping we would have that by now, especially with the additional transit funding.

[thespeedmccool]

Anyone know how close Metro Transit is to bringing back 10 minute frequency for light rail? I was hoping we would have that by now, especially with the additional transit funding.

Well, considering a large chunk of that extra funding is on the chopping block, 10-minute frequencies may be a thing small cities like Minneapolis never get to have again.

[daveybabymsp]

Anyone know how close Metro Transit is to bringing back 10 minute frequency for light rail? I was hoping we would have that by now, especially with the additional transit funding.

Well, considering a large chunk of that extra funding is on the chopping block, 10-minute frequencies may be a thing small cities like Minneapolis never get to have again.

I’m not happy about threats to cut funding but we certainly can have 10 minute frequencies on our two light rail lines with or without it


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[Bakken2016]

Network Now which has been approved has 10 min frequencies for both the Blue and Green lines. It’s not an issue of funding, it’s an issue of staffing of operators and maintenance staff.


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[angrysuburbanite]

June service changes aren’t out yet, but can be seen on the Pantograph app. I might have missed some of them, but Network Now implementation is in full swing now. Here are the changes I could find:
- Metro B Line opens, replacing now eliminated route 21 (RIP) and running every 10-15 minutes all day every day
- Route 27 introduced with an hourly schedule each day of the week from Uptown Transit Center to Lake - Midtown
- Route 38 combines routes 23 and 612; the 612 portion sees service upgrade to a clean half hourly schedule on weekends
- Route 46 now operates every half hour rather than the current alternating 30-60 intervals on weekends
- Route 70 eliminated; replaced by route 72 which is the same but extends along Selby Avenue to Snelling/University
- Route 94 sees its service span widen on weekdays and now runs every half hour on weekends
- Route 515 returns to every 15 minutes all days of the week
- Route 542 operates every half hour all day on weekdays rather than during only peak hours
- Route 860 introduced from Coon Rapids / Riverdale station to St. Paul. Two round trips per day during peak periods.

[Wezle]

Thanks for always putting together the route and ridership changes here!

[angrysuburbanite]

June service changes aren’t out yet, but can be seen on the Pantograph app. I might have missed some of them, but Network Now implementation is in full swing now. Here are the changes I could find:

OK, I missed quite a few! After this round of service changes bus service will be at 97% of pre-COVID levels! This is up from 94% operating right now. 23% of network now will be implemented by this June. I'd expect service changes for the next few years to be major like this one until Network Now has been completed.
- CORRECTION: 515 runs every 20 minutes on Sundays
- A Line and Route 10 now run every 10 minutes on weekends
- Route 2 runs every 10 minutes on weekdays
- All trips on Route 11 extend to Columbia Heights
- Route 54 runs every 15 minutes on W 7th and every 30 minutes to maplewood on Sundays
- 2 trips on Route 764 added to expand service span
- Route 824 now has two round trips per day
https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... nfo-3.aspx

[Silophant]

Wow. Huge improvement to have 15-minute service on the 11 all the way to Columbia Heights, at least for this guy who works on St. Anthony Parkway and has thus far had to roll the dice about whether the next bus would actually go that far north.

Also really good to see the 94 continuing to be improved in preparation for the Gold Line Extension.